Providence Series Books 1-4 Read online

  “He said he’d always wanted a threesome, and doing it on the Housens’ bed would make it even hotter.”

  My appetite had completely disappeared, and I was kicking myself for not saying I’d meet him there, because, if I had, I could have gotten up and escaped. Now I was stuck listening to this shit.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Ren growled, holding on to my hand even harder as I tried to pull it away. “You come in here and start this shit, telling lies when I’m having dinner with my girlfriend, knowing full well that you’re stirring up crap and hurting her. Upset her any more and I promise that I’ll make your lives a living hell—and you know I can.”

  They’d all gasped when he’d called me his girlfriend, but I hadn’t been paying much attention because I was feeling sick to my stomach by then and just wanted to disappear. The bitch said something then that made it even worse, if that was possible. “And then Luke and Tiff joined us. I didn’t think that bed would ever be the same after the five of us were finished.”

  Ren stood up so quickly that his chair fell over, and he whispered something to her which made her go pale. “We’re leaving,” she snapped, grabbing the wicked witches’ arms and dragging them away, but the damage was done.

  I tried everything I could to not cry, but I couldn’t stop the tears, so I looked at my lap and hoped that my hair covered my face so he wouldn’t see. I knew it was in the past, I knew that he’d been young and stupid, but I didn’t want his past shoved in my face constantly. What would it be like in a year’s time when we’d built something together and every time we went out there were women from his past throwing memories in our faces?

  “Baby,” he whispered, but I just wanted to go, so I picked up my purse and went to stand up. “Maya, look at me,” he said, gently grabbing my arm and pulling my chair closer to him.

  “Ren, I don’t want to cause more of a scene here, it’s not fair for everyone else. Can you just let me go, please?” I couldn’t even look at him because it hurt so much.

  “Maya,” he growled as I stood up to leave, and gently pulled me onto his lap, making me choose between fighting and making a scene or just staying put until whatever crap he had to say was said. “She’s talking shit, baby. She wanted to hurt you and cause shit. Please don’t let her win,” he said, turning my face to look at him.

  “She’s lying?” I repeated, needing that final confirmation that what I’d just heard was nothing but a bitter, twisted bitch stirring up shit because she wanted someone who didn’t want her back.

  “She’s talking shit, angel. What she doesn’t realize, though, Maya, is that I’m not giving you up. Do you understand that?”

  I was relieved it hadn’t happened; I was relieved that he felt for me what I was scared to feel for him, and I’d needed those words from him. I knew it was too soon, but fairytales happened in books and movies; why couldn’t they exist in real life, too? That bitch had gotten her one moment of weakness from me, too. From now on, I was gonna fight back.

  Ren drove me home, holding my hand the whole way, and when we got there, he came in and gave me the sweetest kiss goodnight.

  At 10 a.m., still feeling slightly off after last night because I didn’t think that that was the end of Francheska’s bullshit, I was shocked when the most beautiful bunch of flowers arrived on my desk. There were pink roses, peonies, calla lilies, and branches of cherry blossoms. I thought maybe my parents had sent them, or Amy, or Lucy, but when I picked out the card, it said:

  Maya,

  If I could choose how my life would go, I’d turn back time so that I met you the moment you were born. You carry my heart in your hands now.

  Yours, Ren xxxxxxx

  I didn’t know what to do, so I sat staring at them for a bit longer. Did he mean it? How did a playboy go from living how he’d lived his life all of these years to Mr. Romance, becoming an advocate for romance and relationships? It didn’t make any sense; could I trust it? Then again, he didn’t look like the kind of guy who would just do all of this to get me into bed, and I knew he wouldn’t, either.

  Picking up my phone, I sent him a text:

  Me: Thank you for the gorgeous surprise. xox

  I figured he’d be busy at work because he’d said they’d been inundated recently, but just as I’d put my phone down, it buzzed with a reply from him.

  Ren: I meant what I said on the card. I may not always get it right, but I will make sure that you never doubt what I feel for you, baby. xxxxx

  Me: I’m starting to believe that you might just be telling the truth, Ren Townsend. <3 xox

  Ren: I’ve been telling it since we met. See you tonight. xxxx

  At lunchtime, I went to get Isla, who I was becoming very close to, but when she wasn’t in her office, I knocked on Luke’s door, which was closed.

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s me. Do you know where Isla is?” I felt strange shouting through a door in the middle of an office, but it wasn’t unknown for Luke to lock himself down so that he could focus on what he was doing. I was proud of him, because he was fantastic at what he did and had already won awards for his designs.

  “Gimme a sec, honey,” Isla shouted in response, shocking the hell out of me.

  I was about to reply when I was interrupted by the overwhelming smell of sickly-sweet perfume, which I now knew meant bad news. Why didn’t that stuff come with a warning and usage instructions on the box?

  When I was ten, we’d flown first class from LA to London. At the time, it was apparently the law that the hostesses wore thick makeup with a neon orangey-red lipstick, and every time I saw that shade I thought back to that trip and the air hostess who had been flirting with my father. She’d made a point of coming up to him after we had eaten and taking the scarf from around her neck to wipe the crumbs off his crotch. Since then, it was an ongoing joke in the family that that shade was called ‘air hooker,’ and right in front of me was an immaculately dressed and made-up air hooker who was looking at me like I was a piece of dog crap.

  “Could you get out of my way?” it said, shooing me with one perfectly manicured hand and bumping me out of the way so that she could knock on the door herself.

  “Dammit, Maya,” Luke shouted again, sounding out of breath and frustrated. “Just a second!”

  “It’s me, darling,” the air hooker squeaked at the door. If the baby voice was supposed to sound sexy, it was an epic fail, but suddenly the door opened, and Luke was standing looking at us. His shirt looked almost perfect, if you overlooked the fact that his buttons were in the wrong holes and the bottom was untucked from his trousers on the left side. I doubt the air hooker noticed, though, as she was too busy launching herself at him and planting a hard smooch on his lips. I looked behind him and saw Isla was a bit more rumpled than she had been this morning, and she was watching the freak show in front of us with a look of horror on her face, and things started to add up. That bastard! Luke must have known the minute I figured it out, because his eyes cut to me and he looked guilty as hell.

  ‘Asshole,’ I mouthed at him, and his face fell even more, but I had no pity for him; he’d done this to himself. Instead, my pity was for Isla, who was now looking at the floor.

  “Sorry, Luke, I hope you got what you needed done, but Isla and I have a lunch meeting now, and she’s out of the office this afternoon, so we must go. Isla, are you ready?” I said, leaning around him and holding my hand out.

  Looking at him with a disgusted expression when the air hooker remained wrapped around him, whispering loudly, “Mmm, I’ve missed you, darling. What say we go and fool around for a bit? It’s been too long since we last enjoyed ‘lunch’ together in your office,” I walked us quickly towards the exit.

  Just as we passed Isla’s door, the air hooker said loudly, “Oh my God, is that Isla Banks?” Isla stiffened beside me, and I tried to walk even faster, but nothing could have stopped us hearing her. “Aw, is she still in love with you? I thought things were meant to get better with age.
Wait until I tell Calista, she’ll be delighted.”

  I had no idea who that bitch was or who Calista was, but Isla obviously did, because her shoulders started to shake as soon as we walked out into the parking lot; I was pretty sure that I was going to kill Luke when I got back.

  “Are you okay?”

  “No,” she whispered, still looking at the floor as we walked to the deli just down the street from our building. “Listen, if it’s okay, I’m just going to go home. I can take my work with me so that I don’t fall behind, and if there’re any problems, all you have to do is—”

  I cut her off there.

  “You’re going to go home, you’re going to get it all out, and if there are any emergencies, then we will deal with it. Do you want to talk about it before you go? Sometimes it helps,” I said, trying to comfort her, but nothing was working.

  “No, it’s okay.” She was sniffing and wiping her face, and I just wanted to grab her and hug her. “Shit,” she sobbed just as I was leaning in to do just that.

  “What?”

  “My bag is in my office; I need to go back.”

  “I’ll go with you, and if we see her, we’ll just talk loudly so we can’t hear her.” I was pretty sure I’d strangle the woman if she said anything else to Isla, and then start on Luke, but I didn’t want to make Isla wait to escape, so I bit my tongue.

  We managed to walk back into her office without bumping into either of them, but just as Isla picked her laptop up, we heard the air hooker moan “Oh, Luke!” through the wall.

  Storming out of Isla’s office, I hammered on his door.

  “What’s going on?” my uncle asked, and when I turned around he was looking at me like I was crazy, and LeAnne was behind him, looking at me wide-eyed.

  Before I could answer, Luke’s door was opened by the man himself, and he stood there taking all of us in as he said, “Kendal, thank you for stopping by, and I’ll see you later.”

  “But Luke,” she squeaked back before looking at my uncle and sashaying forward with this smug smile on her face. “Mr. Montgomery, it’s lovely to see you. You’re looking well.” As she went to kiss his cheek, my uncle took a step back, taking her by surprise and making me giggle. Guess he didn’t like her either.

  “Luke, when you have a minute, come to my office,” he said, looking pretty much pissed off and dismissing the hooker. I guess Luke wasn’t in the mood to say goodbye to her either, as he turned around and slammed his office door behind him.

  “Who are you?” she sneered in my direction, now deciding that I was worth her time and attention. She wasn’t worth mine, though, so I did what Luke had done and went into my office and shut the door in her face. Hearing my phone beeping in my purse, I saw that I had a text from Isla saying that she had left and was on her way home, and she’d see me in the morning.

  Sitting at my desk, I started to rub my temples; so much had happened in such a short space of time, and to be honest, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. When I thought of Ren, though, I got butterflies in my chest, and it all seemed worthwhile, so on a whim I sent him a text after I replied to Isla.

  Me: Dinner at mine tonight? <3 xox

  Again, he replied immediately, shocking the hell out of me. With Andy, I’d have been lucky to get a reply by the end of the day, or he’d just turn up. Thinking back on it, that was probably because he’d been too busy screwing every female member of staff in the company and my supposed friends. As if the ass knew I was thinking about him, my phone went off in my hand again, and his name came up.

  I figured I’d read his first and then cheer myself up by reading Ren’s.

  Asshole alert: Maya I miss you. I’m sorry, can’t you just accept my apology and stop sulking? It’s driving me crazy! I love you, and you’re the only one I want. I promise I’ve changed so why won’t you let me show you? Call me xxx

  Why did I think it would be a good idea to read it? I never replied to his texts, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with his crap again. Ignoring it, I read Ren’s text just as my door opened and my asshole cousin stuck his head around it.

  “You seen Isla?”

  The look on my face must have conveyed my thoughts, because he came in and closed the door behind him and rubbed his face with both hands. I’ll admit he looked pretty torn up, but I had no sympathy for him at this point, so deciding to say nothing, I looked back at my phone to read Ren’s message.

  Ren: Sounds good angel. Do I need to bring anything with me? xxxx

  Me: Just yourself! ;-) xox

  I’d replied immediately, seeing as the dirty bastard was still in my office looking like a lost puppy and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with him. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my cousin like a brother, but what he’d done today had struck a chord with me.

  My phone started to ring in my hand, drawing my attention off of Luke. Seeing ‘Asshole alert’ on the screen, I silenced it and put it on my desk before looking back up at my cousin, deciding that he was the lesser asshole of the two.

  “Look, it wasn’t what it looked like,” he said, but I’d heard that excuse before from Asshole Andy, so all it did was wind me up even more. It was obvious I’d interrupted him and Isla when I’d knocked, but to stand by and let the air hooker kiss him and say nasty things about Isla? Heck no.

  “It wasn’t what it looked like, I promise you. Isla’s…she’s…fuck, she’s everything. Kendal’s…” He looked up at me as he gave a sweep of his hand like that explained everything.

  “I don’t know what’s happening between you and Isla, but I do know that she was crying when we left here and that you did nothing to help her when that…that…air hooker,” I hissed, “tore her to pieces.”

  The little smile that had been quirking his lips fell.

  “I’m taking her out with us tomorrow night to this Sheeve’s place,” I continued. “If it’s the meat market that you all claim it is, she’ll find herself a guy for the night, and I’ll make sure he’s a nice guy, because that is what she deserves.” I knew that the last bit would piss him off.

  “Like hell you will,” he growled at me with a scowl that, if he weren’t Luke, would have made me pause. The guy needed to face facts, though, and lighting a fire under him might help him.

  “I sure as hell will, Luke Ian Montgomery, and here’s why: you lost your chance when you let that thing paw you, kiss you, and destroy Isla without defending her at all. You lost your chance when you did whatever it is you did very audibly in your office.” God, that was disgusting, thinking about my cousin with her in the office next to me; thank God I hadn’t eaten.

  Luke had a stupefied look on his face like he had no clue what I was talking about. Again, Andy had done this to me often, so it didn’t work on me, and I was disappointed that Luke had such little respect for me to use it on me.

  “What? I didn’t do anything with her.”

  “Of course, you didn’t,” I sneered. I’d had enough now.

  “She was looking at a plan that I had on the drawing desk,” he shouted, standing up quickly from the chair in front of my desk. “I didn’t touch her! She came in and was talking, and I wasn’t listening because I was too busy thinking about Isla. Then she walked over to the drawing desk and saw one of the plans for that media company and said that when she saw the 3D mock-up.” He was pacing back and forth by this point and kept running his hand through his hair, and then he froze and slowly turned toward me with a look of horror on his face. “Tell me Isla didn’t think that we were…” he whispered.

  The look on my face must have said it all, because the next second he was out the door and shouting at LeAnne to hold his calls.

  God, this place was becoming a bit of a mess. Yes, there had been drama and stress in Tampa, but had it been as bad as this? I was trying to remember when my phone lit up again with Ren’s name. There were two messages from him, and I wondered why I hadn’t noticed before, and then remembered I’d put it on silent when Asshole Andy had called.

  Re
n: I’ll see you at 6.30pm. I have a surprise for you. xxxx

  Ren: Wanna know what it is? xxxx

  He always seemed to be doing little romantic things for me, and I hadn’t done anything for him yet, so at 5 p.m. when I shut down my computer, I drove the short distance to Scarlett’s.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ren

  I ’d been on edge all day. Last night was such a shit storm of epic proportions that I was waiting for Maya to just say forget it and walk away. We may have just been starting off, but she already meant everything to me, and the worry was eating away at me. I was working under a Camry, trying to get the new exhaust attached as I mulled over last night again, and the next thing I knew I had to move quickly before it dropped on me.

  “What the fuck?” I roared across the garage, making everyone stop and stare at me. Throwing my wrench towards the corner of the garage, I stormed up to my office, slammed the door behind me, and walked to my desk.

  “Hey bro, that was pretty impressive,” Cole said, walking into my office like nothing was wrong. “Old man Wilkins lost his hearing aid and we’ve been shouting at him for five minutes with no luck, but you shouting—I think you fixed his ears,” he snorted, laughing. Funny fucker! “Listen, if you’re having problems down below, I’d be happy to…”

  I launched myself across my desk and missed him by centimeters as he ran out the door to safety. Pussy!

  Deciding to clock out early, I stopped off at Fiori, the florist that had been in Piersville almost since the town was created, to pick up a bundle of cherry blossom branches for my girl, and then headed home and had a shower before driving to Maya’s. I pulled in just as she was getting out of Hulk, and snorted that I was now calling the damn vehicle that name.